Education: 

• University of Miami, Division of Marine Biology and Fisheries, Miami, FL. Doctorate of Philosophy (2005). Dissertation: The adaptive significance of ureotelism in batrachoidid fishes.
• Virginia Commonwealth University, Department of Biology, Richmond, VA. Master of Science (1998). Thesis: Zonation patterns in Orthoptera (Acrididae) distribution and plant-herbivore interactions in relation to primary succession on a Virginia Barrier Island.
• Virginia Commonwealth University, Department of Biology, Richmond, VA. Bachelor of Science & Bachelor of General Studies (1992). Thesis: Directionality patterns and sound pressure levels of the courtship call of the oyster toadfish, Opsanus tau.

Research Interest: Ecological and evolutionary physiology, environmental toxicology, sensory biology, restoration ecology, biotic interactions.

Abstract of Research: I am primarily a physiological ecologist and integrative biologist who is interested in the underpinnings of observed ecological patterns. My experiences are broadly focused on field and laboratory techniques to resolve how organisms adapt to biotic and abiotic factors or stressors that shape their environment. This work has lead to ongoing interests in nitrogen metabolism and ammonia tolerance in fishes as well as their chemical and behavioral ecology. I plan to continue working with the chemosensing of nitrogenous compounds by teleost and elasmobranch fishes along with other behavioral aspects of their predator-prey relations and reproductive ecology. Other research themes will continue to focus anthropogenic stressors such as nitrogen loading in coastal waters.

Publications:

• Barimo, J.F., McDonald, M.D. and Walsh, P.J. 2010. Diel patterns of nitrogen excretion, plasma constituents and behavior in the gulf toadfish (Opsanus beta) in laboratory versus outdoor mesocosm settings. In Press: Physiological and Biochemical Zoology.
• Arquette, T.J., Barimo, J.F. and Mills, R.R. 2010. Grasshoppers (Orthoptera: Acrididae) from the Virginia Barrier Islands. Banisteria. 35: 47-52
• Garcia, E.M., Barimo, J.F., Serafy, J.E. and Walsh, P.J. 2009. Age and growth of the gulf toadfish, Opsanus beta, based on otolith increment analysis. Journal of Fish Biology. 75(7): 1750-1761.
• Barimo, J.F., Serafy, J.E., Frezza, P.E. and Walsh, P.J. 2007. Habitat utilization, urea production and spawning in the gulf toadfish Opsanus beta. Marine Biology. 150(3): 497-508.
• Barimo, J.F. and Walsh, P.J. 2006. Use of urea as a chemosensory cloaking molecule by a bony fish. Journal of Experimental Biology. 209(21): 4254-4261.